Thursday, February 2, 2012

A successful failure....

So as promised, I made soup. I really wanted to make a Pumpkin Bisque, but I am currently a solid 15-20 pounds overweight and there was NO way I was going to be able to make a bisque that would not make me gain weight (or at least NOT lose any). With the Super Bowl coming up I had to save my calories for Sunday. So I decided instead to make a Carrot Ginger soup as natural as I possibly could. I searched around the web and as usual I found about 200 versions of roughly the same recipe. The more and more I found the more and more I decided to kind of wing it with spices and keep it simple. 

Me, keeping it simple
Carrots - Check
Ginger - Check
Low Sodium Chicken broth - Check
Shallots - why the hell not, I like shallots
Olive oil - for the shallots, dummy....



I could not have made this any easier on myself.
- Peeled the ginger (about half of that which was roughly 2 1/2 TBSP). 
- Minced both shallots.
- Broke down the pre-peeled carrots into even smaller pieces. 
- Olive oil in medium/high pan
- Shallots in pan until translucent
- Add Ginger
- Dump broth
- Add carrots until tender (took FOREVER)
- Put in food processor
- Season to taste

When it came to seasoning, I have NO clue what I did or did not put in as far as measurement. Black pepper, cinnamon, some dried ginger, salt, coriander and more black pepper. 


 The Final Product

The Good:
The taste was solid. The cinnamon was not overpowering but I did enjoy having the note of it. The ginger was not as strong as I thought it would have been, but it was definitely on the front of the tongue. The pepper was the last bit you tasted which was exactly how I wanted it to react which was great. 

The Bad:
The consistency sucked. I don't know if it was the carrots not being "mushy" enough or if maybe it's time to consider a new blade on the food processor but it was far too stringy. I did add some flour to try to tighten it up (which it did) and about 3 TBSP of half and half as well which had a positive effect, but not nearly positive enough. It was good, not great. If I could get the consistency right the flavor was almost spot on. Next time i'll dial up the ginger and shallots a bit and let the carrots cook WAY down. 

I wish had some Parsley I could have thrown on top for presentation, or maybe a dollop of cream.... Next time Gadget, next time...